


An Equivocal Kinship

by Paul A (pedanther)



Category: The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: First Contact, Gen, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Shellpeople, Stealth Crossover, although it will hopefully add texture, comparisons across canon boundaries, familiarity with the other fandom is not required, kind of an episode tag for a fic I haven't written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-21 21:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9568211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pedanther/pseuds/Paul%20A
Summary: Alien shellpeople.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astrokath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrokath/gifts).



> Inspired by the collision of a couple of the random story ideas suggested in astrokath's Yuletide letter.

"You're quiet today, my girl," Niall observed.

"I've been thinking," Helva said. "About roads not travelled."

About the beings she and Niall had encountered at their most recent port of call. They had been shellpeople, of a sort, from an alien world. No, that didn't put it strongly enough. They had been alien shellpeople.

Alien not because of what they looked like inside the shells, but because of the use to which the shells were put. Not for them the joy of flying between the stars as a brainship, or the more sedate pleasures of managing a city. The very idea of a brainship was apparently unknown among them; they had failed to recognise Helva for what she was, a fact which had much to do with Helva and Niall being alive to look back on it now.

Because the alien shellpeople had been hostile—and, more than that, had been _built_ for hostility, in heavily-armored, independently mobile shells with powerful weapons mounted on them. Built for a mission of destruction, of the eradication of any other intelligent lifeform they encountered.

"I find it hard to imagine the calamity that sent them down that road," she told Niall, "but I can grasp enough to be very glad that it didn't happen in the Central Worlds."

"I don't blame you," Niall said, with a crooked attempt at a grin that showed how much it had been on his mind too. "Their voice reproduction units...! Wonderful for shouting at people, certainly, but imagine trying to _sing_ through one!"


End file.
